The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has described as "shameful" the decision of Giorgia Meloni's Government to extend the Schengen controls with Spain linked to the arrival of migrants in Ceuta for another fifteen days, and has emphasized that currently Italy records double the irregular entries than Spain.
"It is absurd, it is useless, and it is a shame because it is undermining the spirit, the philosophy of what it means to be European partners," Albares assessed in statements to the media in the Senate, where he participated in the session of control to the Government, after Rome decided to extend the controls, a measure to which the Spanish Executive has responded in reciprocity.
In his analysis, the decision of the Italian Executive responds to "internal politics" and both the Prime Minister, leader of the far-right party Brothers of Italy, and her Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, who leads Forza Italia, an ally of the Popular Party in Brussels, are not behaving as "European leaders up to the circumstances."
In this context, he has demanded both from the PP, as allies of Forza Italia, and from Vox, as allies of Meloni, that they convey to them that "this measure is a shame, it is absurd, and it is ridiculous."
Albares has insisted that Italy currently records "double the irregular entries than Spain" and has recalled that in 2023, when the Italian Government was "unable" to manage the arrival of immigrants to the island of Lampedusa, "not only did we offer our solidarity, as we have done in many other situations, but we even welcomed irregular migrants by bringing them to Spain."
"I understand that the Italian Government is acting for internal politics, but it is shameful and is certainly a direct attack on the dignity of Spaniards and on the unity and solidarity of Europeans," he reiterated, emphasizing that "Europe without solidarity cannot exist."
For his part, Tajani has considered the statement of his Spanish counterpart as "unnecessarily aggressive" in a message on his social networks in which he assured that his country "applies the rules and European Treaties with the sole objective of defending the security of the borders and of its citizens."
"The reaction of the Spanish Government to the Italian decision to maintain the suspension of Schengen is therefore out of place, inappropriate, and unnecessarily aggressive," added the Italian Foreign Minister.